Rare survivals of early photographs of the newly married Samuel and Florence Baker taken between their return from the Nile and their expedition on behalf of Khedive Ismail.

Married for the second time in 1865, and knighted in 1866, Sir Samuel Baker had a series of photographs (at least three different are known) taken in a studio in Piccadilly with stage props of skulls and African 'explorer' costume. At the time he was struggling to break into the accepted upper-crust of Victorian society, with Florence being explicitly denied visitation by Queen Victoria on account of her background, and likely produced these as a way of projecting his exploring credentials alongside the success of his books (The Albert N'yanza (1866) and The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia (1867)).

It is especially unusual to find both Bakers together, with accompanying signatures, making it likely that it was put together for presentation for a close friend. Both Livingstone and Grant had made a gentleman's agreement with Baker upon meeting him in the Nile Lakes to not mention Florence in their narratives, despite credit being due to her as the first European along with her husband to see Lake Albert, because they had been travelling together whilst still unmarried.

Scarce, with the only recorded copies we can find of the cartes-de-visite being in the National Portrait Gallery, London, The Humphrey Winterton Collection in Northwestern University, and the Russell E. Train Africana Collection in the Smithsonian.

Two albumen cartes-de-visite (approx. 8 x 4.5 cm) mounted on decorative paper borders, cut mounted signatures, glazed and framed (21.5 x 29.5 cm).